OPEC+ Should Decide on Coronavirus Response Later

Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov said Wednesday the OPEC+ group of oil producers should respond to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak but decide on quotas later on.

"Of course, it will probably be necessary to react, but I think that it would be more appropriate to respond to the situation a bit later on because at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty and a lot of conflicting information," Dyukov said in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel, S&P Global reported.

Russia has yet to state an official position on making any changes to the current OPEC+ agreement.

The group will meet March 5-6 in Vienna to discuss market conditions and the future of the deal.

Saudi Arabia has lobbied to deepen the 1.7 million bpd production cut to offset the coronavirus outbreak's impact on demand, but Russian officials have yet to commit to any changes.

Dyukov added that while the situation was deteriorating in countries such as South Korea and Italy, data from China indicates they have managed to slow down the pace of the spread of the epidemic.

"But in any case, not so much time has passed...something happens every month on the oil market and if OPEC+ reacts to changes every month this will only lead to destabilization of the situation. Therefore it is better to observe and probably decide on quotas a little later," he said.

In mid-February representatives of Russian oil companies indicated that they supported an extension of the OPEC + production cuts through to the end of the second quarter, but at current production levels rather than with any deeper cuts.